Leonard R. Sayles

Dr. Leonard R. Sayles received his doctorate from MIT in Industrial Economics. He has been a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business for four decades; now Emeritus.

In a series of research projects and books, he helped transform conventional views of business leadership. His widely-cited leadership studies won a number of national awards in America, and many were republished in Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

He advised the head of NASA in its formative years and published a major study of its management methods sponsored by the National Academy of Science. He also has been a consultant to major American corporations.

He lives with his wife in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and Naples, Florida.

Dr. Cynthia J. Smith is an anthropologist who has conducted numerous field-based studies of businesses. She is co-author of Inside Arthur Andersen: Shifting Values, Unexpected Consequences. This book is an analysis of events deriving out of the Enron collapse that led to the fall of Arthur Andersen. The book traces the decades-long shifts in values of the firm, with emphasis on changes in leadership over time. Dr. Smith was a member of Arthur Andersen's Management Development Group during the 1980s.

During the 1990s, Dr. Smith spent several years collecting field-based data on three Silicon Valley-based, "new economy" companies. She was inside each of these organizations for one to two years, which makes the data distinctive from typical academic studies or journalistic access. These primary research materials are used in our analysis.